Alone, Yet Together
by GoodForBad
Summary: While vacationing during Christmas break, Jimmy and Cindy end up getting stuck in a ditch due to a blinding snow storm. What shall become of them? Long one-shot!


**A/N: Guys, I have literally _no _idea what happened with this one. The idea popped into my head and I sat down to write it, and this is what came out. It is, admittedly, a tad random (and long!). I'm not sure what I think of it. Anywho, I just wanted to note that I envision the car they're in to have a bench seat in the front, like the old school Cadillacs. And the next chapter for _Hospital Flowers_ should be up soon! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. **

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"Oh this is just _great. _Just _fabulous._"

"Cindy, would you quiet down for two minutes and let me think?"

"Let you _think? _What exactly is there to think about here?"

"Oh gee, I don't know, how about _how to get out of here?!_"

"How to get out? This is your fault in the first place!"

"I know that! And that's why I'm going to figure out how to fix this! God!" Jimmy slumped backwards into the seat and ran his hands over his face. With one last attempt, powered by frustrated exertion, he slammed his foot against the gas pedal. And just like the previous endeavors, the back wheels of the car spun uselessly against the slick snow and they didn't move. Not even an inch. Jimmy moaned in annoyance and smashed his head against the steering wheel.

"Nice going, Neutron. Now that you've exhausted all of your _brilliant _ideas, how about you try something other than putting the car in reverse and hitting the gas?"

"You know," he said slowly, turning towards her with venom in his voice, "I haven't heard you suggest a damn thing. Seeing as how you are _oh so above me_ in all things car, snow, and accident related, please advise me in how to get out of our current predicament." Cindy stared at him with wide, emerald eyes, her mouth in a taut line, face tense. She said nothing. "Just what I thought," he said with a smirk, and he turned back towards the front of the car. Both sat in silence for a moment.

"You could turn the car off," she said blandly. "I'd rather not die from carbon monoxide poisoning."

"You're not going to die, seeing as how the car is at an incline and the exhaust pipe is facing _up _into the open air_,_" he said, tone flat. "But we _are_ almost out of gas anyway, so I guess it would be prudent to shut the car off." With that, he pulled the keys from the ignition and the car went silent. Cindy sighed softly.

"Great. Now we'll freeze to death instead." Jimmy let out another groan that sounded something like, "Ah ha ha ha," and rested the back of his head against his seat. The senior ski trip to the Colorado Rockies with his best friends had seemed like a great idea upon initial planning. Carl's uncle had offered them his cabin to stay in while he vacationed in Florida, all their parents had agreed to the trip as long as they were home by Christmas, and none of them had seen snow in years. It was an exciting prospect, and upon arriving two days prior, everything had been going as planned.

Until Sheen had discovered they were out of toilet paper.

Of all the things. Of _all _the things to run out of, _that_ was what they ran out of first. It was one of those things no one had given much thought to remember to pack extra...they were only going to be gone for a few days. But they were out, and an unexpected snow storm had blown in out of nowhere. "It's only just starting," Jimmy had noted. "I'll run down to the store and get some." Plus the car was running low on fuel...he wanted to fill up so they wouldn't be stranded up here with a useless automobile. They had driven there in the Neutrons' car, and he wasn't too keen on letting anyone else take it. And while he was on his way out - was that really only half an hour ago? - Cindy had suddenly insisted on coming with him. She said she needed to pick up a few things she had forgotten to pack, but refused to tell him what these things were. He had offered to pick them up for her, but she wouldn't allow it. So begrudgingly, he had let her come along, with the promise to the gang that they'd be back in less than an hour. What he hadn't known was that the storm was worsening by the minute, visibility was low, and he wasn't used to driving in the snow. So halfway down the mountain, he had taken a left when he was supposed to take a right (the snow...it covered all the memorable landmarks!) and they had ended up diagonally in a roadside ditch. The snowfall had cushioned their impact and neither of them had been hurt (he'd only been going 25, like any safe driver would do), but now they were stuck.

Alone.

Together.

_Great._

"Okay," he sighed, focusing on the wall of white right ahead of him. 'How to get out of here..." An idea suddenly popped into his head and he glanced at Cindy. "Where's your phone?" Her head turned slowly towards him, and he had the sudden feeling he had asked the wrong question.

"I left it," she said blandly, "at the cabin." It took exactly 2.5 seconds before Jimmy exploded with,

"Why the _hell_ would you leave it there? We venture out into a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere and you lack the foresight to _bring your cell phone with you?!_"

"Alright, try to focus, idiot," Cindy snapped. "One, out here, there is no reception whatsoever. My phone's completely useless. Two, I thought we'd be there and back in 45 minutes tops, so I didn't think I'd need it!" She paused a moment and stared at him. "And where the hell is your phone, genius?"

"I don't have one," he said with a smarmy smile. "My own technology is so above and beyond those pieces of crap you call smart phones that I never invested. Not when I have _this._" He pointed triumphantly to his wrist, and both he and Cindy noticed at the same time how very empty it looked.

"Wow," Cindy deadpanned. "I had no idea your wrist was so far advanced."

"My...my watch!" he sputtered, staring indignantly at his arm.

"Where _is_ it exactly?" Cindy ventured, and his eyes suddenly widened with realization.

"It's here!" he announced, reaching into the inside of his coat. "In my...in my..." His face fell and his shoulders slumped. "...in my other jacket."

"You moron!" Cindy burst out, taking her turn as the angry one. "Why did you take it off?"

"Because we were skiing earlier!" he shouted at her. "I fell down so many times, I was afraid it might get damaged - "

"So you put it in your pocket. _There's_ a brilliant idea."

"This coming from the girl who leaves her freaking cell phone at the cabin, when its main appeal lies in the fact that it's _portable!_"

"Okay, you know what? Fine." Cindy angrily yanked her seat belt off and placed her hand on the door handle. "Since the only thing you seem to be capable of is complaining, I'll walk back to the cabin." He surprised her by reaching out and grabbing her other wrist forcefully.

"You're not going anywhere," he said, almost sounding threatening. His tone scared her a little, but she yanked her arm free from his grasp and glared at him.

"Yeah? And why not?"

"Okay, one," he began, slamming one index finger against the other, "it's freezing out there."

"I have a ski coat on, Nerdtron -"

"Two," he continued, ignoring her, "it's still snowing pretty heavy. You won't be able to see anything. Can't have you wandering off and ending up frozen in a ditch somewhere. And three," he said, sliding closer to her, "do you see the snow piled up against the window? How exactly are you going to get out of the car?" She turned quickly, and much to her chagrin, found that he was right. While it was possible for her to get out of the car, it would take a lot of effort, and the odds of not getting snow inside and/or on top of her were slim to nothing.

"Great," she said, slumping in defeat. "So now we just sit here til we freeze to death. Awesome."

"We're not going to freeze to death," he replied with a sigh. "We just need to keep our heads. Eventually Carl, Sheen, or Libby is going to notice we're taking too long and call...somebody."

"Comforting," Cindy snorted, pulling her knees to her chest. She sat huddled there for a moment before saying, "This was stupid. I should never have come."

"Agreed," he said, suddenly noticing he was still close to her. He scooted back to his seat. "I could have just picked up whatever it was you wanted."

"That's not what I'm talking about," she responded with a roll of her eyes. "I meant I never should have come on this trip. With you here." His head snapped in her direction.

"What?" he said wisely.

"All we've done is fight the entire time," she said, staring straight out ahead at the windshield. "In fact, that's all we've done since we broke up. Just like when we were kids."

"Well, your attitude doesn't help. Maybe if you'd get off your high horse every once and a while, we could be civil towards each other."

"Damn it Jimmy, why do you have to be such a know-it-all?" she hissed, turning towards him. "Maybe if _you_ would stop thinking you were so much better than the rest of us - "

"I don't," he protested, face twisting into a scowl. "I'm just applying common sense. For instance, the argument we had from the moment we got in this car was based off of your insistence on coming with me."

"Yeah, and then you drove us into a ditch. Nice going."

"My _point,_" he emphasized, "was that you didn't have to come with me. What exactly did you need?"

"None of your damned business."

"Well, I think it is now, considering you're stuck here because you always feel the need to take care of things yourself. Why did you come?"

"Because I needed something!"

"Did you want to spend time with me?"

"Ugh! God no!"

"Then why did you come?"

"I already told you, stupid!"

"No you didn't. You're only convincing me further that you wanted to spend time with me, and that's why you came. Otherwise you'd be back at the cabin, curled in a blanket with a nice cup of cocoa."

"I didn't come for you."

"Then why did you?"

"I. Needed. Something."

"Just tell me what it was and I'll stop bugging you."

"No!"

"Then you've proven my point!"

"No I _didn't!_"

"Then what did you need?"

_"Tampons!_" she screamed and he actually jumped, slamming into his window. "I needed _tampons, okay?!_ God, you are such an idiot!" She turned away briskly, but not before he noticed the shine of tears in her eyes. He sat in muted shock for a moment, watching her body tremble (from the cold? Crying? Please God, don't let it be crying) and it suddenly felt like a weight had been placed in his chest. _Okay, Neutron. That was stupid._ All his intelligence, and that particular product had never even entered his mind as a possible need. Feeling like he had to do something, he reached out slowly and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me," she barked and pulled away from him, squishing herself up against the window, still refusing to look at him.

"Cindy," he said. "Cindy, I'm sorry." She huffed and sniffed, but said nothing. "For everything. I'm an idiot, okay?"

"No argument there," she murmured, and he felt an odd sort of relief that she had insulted him. It was almost like things were heading back towards normal. Almost.

"Listen," he started, wondering what he was doing. "I think it's dumb to fight. Ridiculous, considering our situation. Fighting is not going to help. Agreed?" She sighed into her palm and nodded slowly. "Okay. So here's my solution: we do nothing." That got a reaction out of her. She turned towards him, eyes fierce.

"Nothing?" she exclaimed, then lowered her voice. "Your solution is to just sit here and do _nothing?_" _Thank God. He changed the subject. _

"Well, what other options do we have?" He began counting down on his fingers. "We have no way to call for help. I can't get the car out of this ditch. It's positively frigid outside, the storm isn't letting up anytime soon, and it would be stupid to risk either of our lives trying to get down to the gas station or back up to the cabin. These weather conditions tend to disorientate a person. Right now we're protected from the storm, and the snow provides a chilly sort of insulation. Plus we have snow gear on, so staying warm shouldn't really be a problem. I say we wait it out til morning when the storm's over, and we can try to get out of here." He sighed. "My only real concern at this point is Sheen or Carl trying to come find us when we don't come back. I don't mean to insult their intelligence, but they've both demonstrated impulsive behavior on more than one occasion. Hopefully, Libby will be able to keep them from doing something really stupid." Cindy nodded her consent and let out a small, defeated laugh.

"Guess you're right," she grunted. Then she paused. "Wait, did you say til morning? We have to stay here overnight?"

"Yep," he said, eyeing the snow flurries as another gust of wind whistled outside.

"Okay," she swallowed, running a hand through her hair. It was still a bit damp from the shower she had taken right before they left, and it wasn't helping her warm up. She felt like all the fight had gone out of her, like she was that little girl again on a another Jimmy Neutron mission that had gone awry. Except this time they weren't in outer space, or back in the Cretaceous Period. _So much for a normal vacation. _She sighed softly to herself, wishing she had never come on this trip. She had meant what she said. It was really hard to watch him, hear his laugh, listen to him humming along to a song on the car's radio, and know that he was no longer hers. It was also difficult to accept that even though it had been nearly four months since they broke up, she still had these intense feelings for him. That was really the only reason she had agreed to come on this trip. She had thought she was over him.

"Hey...you okay?" She glanced over at him and noted how his eyes seemed even more blue when they were cast against the pure white of the snow behind him. Oh, how his gaze could still turn her into simpering pile of girly mush. _Dammit!_ She nodded again, feeling like she had done that a hundred times today.

"I'm fine. I'm just tired." Oh. That excuse again. Why did people always believe it? Could they not tell the difference between exhausted and depressed? She refused to look at him, and instead studied the outdoors like it held the answers to her questions. Jimmy, meanwhile, refused to take his eyes _off_ of her, and his mind began to burst with his own questions, like it had since the day before school was back in session in August and they had gone their separate ways.

_Why am I still feeling this way? How can I possibly have feelings for Cindy, when she takes great pleasure in insulting me? _"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," she said, still not looking at him. _Geez, fighting with me one minute and trying to comfort me the next. What a guy._ She shivered suddenly, and wrapped her arms around her legs, trying to conserve warmth. "Is there any way we can turn the heat back on? Even if it's just for a minute?"

"Well..." He said, glancing down at the keys in his hand. "Are you cold?"

"No, I just like to hear the hum of the engine," she snapped and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, I'd like to conserve gas, if it's at all possible. When we get out of here - "

"What difference does it make? We're going to have to get towed out of here anyway!"

"Okay, fine. Fine. I'll start the damned car." He violently shoved the keys into the ignition and turned it. Nothing. Frowning, he tried again, harder this time. Still nothing. "Well, the gods of misery are clearly having a field day with me. The car won't start."

"Fantastic. Just fantastic. No, don't even bother," she said as he began to try to fix it. "It's not worth it. Just forget it." He complied and threw the keys up on the dashboard. Silence reigned yet again. Jimmy sat staring straight ahead, just like she was, and he noticed suddenly that his breath was coming out in white puffs. He shuddered slightly and looked over at Cindy again, who was still huddled in a tight ball. Her hair was curling slightly around her face, and her lips were set in a little pout as she stared glumly out the windshield. She looked beautiful.

"Hey Cindy," he said softly and she looked over at him, resting her head against her knees. He held out his arm and raised his eyebrows. Her face crumpled into a frown and he quickly added, "You know. For warmth." She inhaled sharply and considered it for half a moment. Oh, how she longed to be held by him again. And pressed up close to his body, she was bound to warm up, even if it was just a little. But after everything he had just said? Really?

"Okay," her mouth decided for her, and she found herself scooting closer towards him. _What the hell am I doing? _She pressed up against him and wrapped her arm around his waist, as he enveloped her with both his arms. Her head rested against his shoulder and he placed his head against the top of her head. She closed her eyes in contentment as his warmth draped over her like a blanket. God, how she missed this.

He held her close, absorbing _her_ warmth, marveling over how small she felt and how perfectly she fit under his arm. Her hair smelled like vanilla, and the pleasant scent was slowly intoxicating him, sending his brain down memory lane of their camping trip to the beach last summer, kissing her tenderly beneath the stars...

"Any better?" he murmured and her eyes snapped open, as if from a dream.

"Much," was all she could manage. They both seemed to realize at the same moment that they weren't supposed to be having these feelings, that they were supposed to be happily single, and Jimmy stiffened while she pulled away slightly. He began to hum a random tune, and she listened to the vibrations coming from his throat. It was oddly comforting. "Hey. Jimmy." Her voice sounded unnaturally quiet, and she would have thought he didn't hear her if he hadn't stopped humming. She could hear him swallow, and then respond with,

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember when we were kids," she began softly, "and we fought constantly over every stupid little thing?" He nodded into her hair, inhaling that vanilla scent again. "Do you remember why?" He frowned.

"Of course I remember why," he said, talking into her hair. "You hated me because I had bested you academically."

"No, I mean...the other reason."

"Because we liked each other?" he asked without missing a beat.

"And that was the only way to cover it up," she finished, tracing over the zipper to his jacket with her finger. "The only way to hide what we were actually feeling."

"Why are you bringing this up?" he asked slowly. She didn't answer. He pulled back slightly and looked down at her. "Cindy? What are you trying to say?"

"I...I'm not..." _Ugh, Cindy, you idiot! Why did you do that?_ She glanced up at him and met his gaze and her heart quickened. "I was just..." His eyes remained a mystery. They told her nothing. "Never mind."

"Don't you dare," he said, cupping her chin with his hand, forcing her to look at him. "You were trying to tell me something. And if you don't, I'm going to start guessing."

"Jimmy, just forget it, okay," she said, her anger rising. Why had she done this to herself? How did he have this effect on her?!

"Not gonna happen. Okay, let's see. Are you trying to say you like fighting with me?"

"Jimmy, stop it."

"Do you still have feelings for me?" Hearing it out loud initiated the wrong reaction and she pulled herself away from him.

"I'm not doing this. I'm not going to let you - " Before she could finish, or even yank herself way completely, he had pulled her back and pressed his mouth against hers. His lips on hers seemed to make her brain stop working and she kissed him back, basking in how horribly right this felt. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer, as her own arms wrapped themselves around his neck. The moment was ruined, however, when he suddenly pulled back and his eyes bored into hers, intense and passionate.

"What the hell just happened?" he said, and the look on his face made her start laughing.

"I don't know," she managed to whisper, and he reached up to caress her face.

"Did you want me to do that?" he asked in a husky voice and she shivered, but it wasn't from the cold this time.

"What happens if I say yes?" she responded in a similar tone.

"You get another kiss."

"Yes," she said, and the word had barely passed her lips before he was on her again. He sucked her bottom lip gently and she let out a small squeak when his tongue ran over her mouth, begging for entrance. She allowed it, and the feeling of being this close to him again was nothing short of euphoric. He tasted like bubblegum, and she was suddenly overwhelmed by the scent of Old Spice and the minty accents of his aftershave. It was intoxicating and she let herself disappear, focusing only on the two of them, right now, in the midst of the storm outside and inside of her heart...

"I missed you so bad," he whispered, pulling away from her again after several minutes to take a breath. His eyes had changed again, and they were brimming with desire, guilt, and hope all at once.

"I missed you too," she whispered back, kissing him gently on the cheek, one, two, three times. "So bad. Oh Jimmy, I'm sorry. So sorry. I just thought that..."

"You were nasty because you were trying to hide that you were hurt. I know." He gazed at her lovingly and twirled a piece of her hair around his finger. "So was I. Just like we did when we were kids."

"I know it doesn't count for much," she said with a swallow. "But I'm sorry."

"Me too. We shouldn't have wasted an entire semester." He gazed at her lips, then back into her eyes. "I think we should try to make up for it."

"I think so too," she laughed. He leaned in fast, but she placed a finger over his lips and raised an eyebrow. "But...this _does_ mean we're back together...right?"

"No, Cindy," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm just using the girl who I love to get what I want, and then it's adios senorita! Give me a break." She stared at him for a second, and then her face slowly lit up with a gigantic smile.

"You love me?" she practically whispered. A smile tugged at his lips, but he kept it in check and wrapped his hand around hers.

"Always have," he said with a shrug. "But you already knew that." She had no idea how so much could have changed so quickly in the past hour, but she no longer cared. Her lips were soon upon his once more, and she poured everything she had into it to let him know.

She didn't have to say the words for them to count.

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**Well, that escalated quickly. I was thinking of writing a companion fic for this one at some point in the future to more or less "finish" it...or would it just be better to keep it as is? Let me know and review! Please and thank you. :)**


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